Facts About Fresno County: Page 16

We’re on Page 16 now and it opens up with a discussion about labor in the valley and then talks about the importance of the City of Fresno in 1900.

Demand For Labor in Fresno County

We love the last line in the paragraph

“Every man with a willing heart and a pair of good hands can get work in Fresno County“

In these days of layoffs and uncertainty, how wonderful does that sound? They probably weren’t stretching the truth either. Fresno county in 1900 was exploding in all directions and with that came the need for skilled and unskilled laborers – as they say.

The City of Fresno

It’s interesting that they say that we were 3rd in the state when it came to shipping importance. Today we think of shipping and the large ship yards of Long Beach or the Bay Area and not so much the inland areas like Fresno.

But what’s important to note is that in 1900, it was the railways that pushed the majority of product to market. Remember that the location of the City of Fresno was chosen specifically because of it’s proximity to rail.

The next thing they discuss is the relationship of Fresno to everything else and how it’s centrally located in the San Joaquin Valley – one of the richest and most productive districts in the state! Go Us!

They finish up with a discussion about the 5 big banks we had in 1900. Their claim of having deposits of 5 Million back then would be around $178 Million today. The important thing to note here wasn’t so much the 5 million in deposits, or the 1.5 million in surplus, it was that this was BEFORE the big bank failures of the early 1930s.

As a short history lesson, in the late 1930s and 1931 – we saw “runs” on banks where people fearing that a bank might collapse would literally “run” to get their money out before the bank went under. This happened in part because each bank was an island unto themselves and many banks were inflating their reserves “artificially”. This run on the banks in the 1930s was the beginning of the Great Depression. We honestly can’t say if these numbers were accurate or inflated, but the timing is interesting.

They finish up by boasting about the 8 different railroad lines, including the two transcontinental we had and how that keeps us connected to the outside world!

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FresYes Writing Team

We say “Yes and” to our community, which we love to work and live in. We always speak positively about our growing business, each other and the Fresno community. We are proud to support local businesses, engage in what’s happening in our community and lovingly participate in as many volunteer activities as we can as individuals and as a collective group. We are generous and we are proud to give back.

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